So, your partner’s cheated. Now what?

Finding out the person you love has betrayed you is one of the most hurtful, winding, body blows to experience. Here's what to do next.

Photo: Characters Noah Solloway and Alison Lockhart in TV show The Affair

A scorned wife who killed her cheating millionaire husband in a road rage attack has given her first prison interview. In September, Frances Hall, 53, was jailed for two years having run her husband off the road in Texas. She had seen his mistress of three years driving their family Range Rover on the highway, followed by her husband on his Harley Davidson motorbike – and she snapped.

The mother of two faced life in prison but she was handed the lightest possible sentence as the jury decided she acted with “sudden passion”.

In the interview with Crime Watch Daily she describes herself as “a shell of a woman”.

Prisons are full of people consumed with regret and remorse. Hall saw red mist and acted in fury. Now, she has to live with the consequences and guilt of her actions.

So, if you find out your partner’s cheating, what do you do? What you feel, how you react and how you heal are three separate issues.

Finding out the person you love has betrayed you is one of the most hurtful, winding, body blows to experience. Trust is shattered, your heart hurts and you’re left feeling sick. It is perfectly okay to feel really, really angry.

What you do with that anger is important. Lashing out is never the perfect response. That doesn’t mean you’re not furious.

There’s a period of processing that needs to happen before you even begin to consider what your next move should be.

Give yourself time to ride out the emotional rollercoaster as you speed through shock, fear, pain, rage and utter confusion.

You need space, take it. If you want to set a time to talk in a few days or weeks when you’ve had a chance to get your head together and formulate some questions, that’s entirely your right to do so. You don’t have to talk when your partner wants to. If they respect you, they need to respect your boundaries.

After the initial shock of hearing the news, your partner is not the priority – you are. If you want to stay with a friend, talk to a confidante, spend hours at the gym, walk for hours – do it. Doing your best to look after yourself is top of the list after finding out about your partner’s betrayal. Force yourself to eat, get some exercise, stick to a schedule each day and spend time with people who lift your spirits.